Hundreds of 2018 E-rate Applications Still in Limbo

Even as the 2019 E-rate season gets underway, hundreds of school and library applicants are still waiting to learn if they will receive the funding they requested in 2018, the result of an application-review process some observers deride as cumbersome despite years' worth of promised fixes. As of February 1, 752 E-rate applications from the 2018 funding year, seeking a total of $356 million, were still under review. The bulk of the pending requests (more than $115 million) were for "lit fiber" service, delivering high-speed broadband over fiber-optic cable. The delays are "woefully par for the course," said John Harrington, the CEO of Funds for Learning, a consulting group that helps thousands of schools and libraries apply each year to program. An FCC spokesman said that E-rate support is being delivered "as quickly and efficiently as possible," noting that 98.7 percent of the roughly 36,000 E-rate applications submitted in 2018 have been processed. That's up a tick from the same point in 2018.